Turnbull shifts government's position on wind

Where Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey had sought to limit wind farms as an energy source, the transition to the Turnbull government seems to be signalling a wind of change.

Outspoken climate sceptic Maurice Newman, a columnist for the Australian and objector to a wind farm project near his country property in Crookwell, has accused the United Nations of manipulating climate science to impose a new world order under its control. He was appointed to head the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council as one of Abbott’s first acts after winning government in 2013, but has not been reappointed to the council. Someone who refuses to accept basic science is presumably no longer welcome as an advisor to the government.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has further distanced the Turnbull government from Abbott’s anti-wind agenda by stating that “renewables are not only a fundamental part of our energy mix now and increasingly in the future but also … I find them and have always found them an appropriate part of Australia’s energy.” The Environment Minister has downplayed previous party outrage over turbines as “views expressed by particular individuals.” Never mind that one of those ‘particular individuals’ was the PM!